Gender inequality, inequity…say no!
Male chauvinism…misogyny…say no!
Rise up, Great African Womanhood and make the male species a better one…John Mayer’s “Your Body is a Wonderland”…say yes!
Rise up, Great African Manhood and make the female species a better one…say yes!
Rise up, Diopian African-centered womanism, feminism…say yes!
Veronique Tadjo’s “Mame Wata and the Monsters”…say yes!
Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie’s “We Should All Be Feminists”…say yes!
Rise up, Afrocentric Pan-Africanism….Afro-optimism…say yes!
Afro-pessimism…neocolonialism…political ethnocentrism…postcolonial kleptomania…the politics of prebendalism…say no!
Afrocentric patriotism…African-centered patriotism is the answer to our moral and intellectual and social crises…say yes!
Afrocentric consciousness…African-centeredness…say yes!
Eurocentric consciousness…say no!
Extreme partisan politics…winner-takes-all schadenfreude duopoly…say no!
Politics of the Belly…say no!
Donor fatigue…foreign-aid rejection…say yes!
African countries as client states…say no!
Cult of personality…nepotism…cronyism…culture of greed…crony capitalism…say no!
Mass poverty…mass illiteracy…say no!
Idi Amin…Mobuto Sese Seko…Emperor Bokassa…Charles Taylor…Joseph Kony…say no!
Kwame Nkrumah…Patrice Lumumba…Amilcar Cabral…say yes!
Galamsey…galamsey-related pollution…corruption…deaths…destruction of waters…of lands…of forests…say no!
Kpokpogbligbli politicians…say no!
Kumkum Bhagya politics…say no!
Bob Marley…Africa Unite…say yes!
Black…African inferiority…say no!
White supremacy…racism…white supremacy…ethnocentrism…say no!
Scorpions’ “Wind of Change”…glasnost…perestroika…say yes!
Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s “Petals of Blood”…“Wizard of the Crow”…say yes!
Culture…Joseph Hill…seh:
“Tribal war ain’t solve the problem…
“Tribal war can’t solve it all…
“We should live in love…
“The arms of gun is helpless…
“Countries against countries…
“What we need, all we need is love…
“We don’t need no war…
“Can’t you hear, what I say?...
Yes, Brother Joseph Hill…we hear you…Bob Marley, Curtis Mayfield…Aretha Franklin…Maria Muldaur…Eva Cassidy…Jeff Beck/Rod Stewart/Ronnie Wood…Bruce Springsteen…Greg Lake…Vanilla Fudge…George Benson…Ladysmith Black Mambazo…John Mayer…Bob Dylan…Michelle Wright…seh:
“One Love/People Get Ready.”
What are we waiting for, to effect a radical change in the statute quo?
In other words what is this bystander effect…this bystander apathy…this nonchalance…this lukewarmness…this lackadaisicalness…this animal behavior of the sloth, of the tortoise…all about?
Let us see what guitarist John Mayer’s track “Waiting on the World to Change” sey:
“Me and all my friends…
“We're all misunderstood…
“They say we stand for nothing and…there's no way we ever could…
“Now we see everything that's going wrong…
“With the world and those who lead it…
“We just feel like we don't have the means…
“To rise above and beat it…
“It's not that we don't care…
“We just know that the fight ain't fair…
“One day our generation…
“Is gonna rule the population…
“So we keep on waiting…
“Waiting on the world to change…
We shall return with a concluding installment!
REFERENCE
Ebere Onwudiwe (2005). Afropessimism. Encyclopedia.com
